Howard Milstein won’t try to buy the Bills

Posted by Mike Florio on May 13, 2014, 6:56 AM EDT

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A name can be removed from the list of potential buyers of the Buffalo Bills. Howard Milstein, who previously tried to purchase franchises in Washington and Cleveland, won’t try to acquire the Bills from the family of Ralph Wilson.

In a written statement released to the Buffalo News, Milstein said he plans to help try to keep the team in Buffalo by, among other things, selling land to the new owners for the construction of a new stadium.

Milstein’s decision is not surprising. While he owns plenty of real estate, the question becomes whether he has the cold, hard cash required by the NFL to purchase a team. The league strictly limits the amount of debt that can be incurred and the amount of percentage points that can be sold to investors. Potential franchise owners need to be able to plunk down a substantial amount of dollars, and plenty of people who are rich enough to own a team don’t have the liquid assets to buy a team.

That reality could be an impediment for other potential owners of the Bills (cough . . . Trump . . . cough), especially if the effort to sell the team will be placed on a track that moves faster than potential buyers can convert land and other holdings into money, money, money, money . . . money.

this guy is a wannabee owner. this is the 3rd go round for him.
niagra falls land?
sounds like he wants to pawn off his land in the name of ‘keeping the Bills in upstate NY;’
what he means is, hell yes ill take millions of dollars for my land in the name of Community.
really its just greed as per usual.

I love to see all these people backing up the Buffalo Bills, and making it priority to keep them in Buffalo. It reminds me of how great the franchise really is, and what a great job Mr. Wilson did. All the Bills need to do now is win, to guarantee this franchise will be in Buffalo for a long time. Seems to be easier said than done….

Puhleeeeze quit giving all of these NFL owner wannabees/carpetbaggers their 15 min … when one of them shows the $$$$ then give them some time, otherwise quit falling for their vainglorious and empty-handed agendas !!!

a new stadium by niagara falls would be nice and a nice draw for national nfl events….the failed downtown LA stadium, farmers field, had a deploy-able etfe roof, it was bascially the seahawks stadium, with a carrier dome roof between the open air portion that could be inflated and deflated….i think keep the bills outdoors, but if there’s no chance of the bills making the playoffs, its a nice option to close the roof and let the fans not freeze in december, plus it could be a draw for the combine or superbowl (if i were an owner i’d say every city needs 1 SB every 32 yrs)